Austin Heritage Consultants are committed to protecting your data privacy and security. We collect personal information in order to provide our services that you request. The following privacy statement explains the collection, dissemination and use of your personal data. It is our policy to never share personally identifiable information to unrelated third parties.
We strongly believe in both minimising the data we collect and limiting its use and purpose to only that necessary to deliver the services you commission, that for which we have been given permission, or as we might be required or permitted for legal compliance or other lawful purposes.
Scope
This privacy policy applies to all personal data processed by employees when acting on behalf of Austin Heritage Consultants, contractors and partners doing business on behalf of Austin Heritage Consultants and all business processes conducted by Austin Heritage Consultants.
If at any time you have questions about our practices or any of your rights described below, you may reach our Data Protection Officer (Jen Austin) by contacting us using the form on the Contact Us page or by calling us on 07906 652183.
Lawful Basis for Processing Information
The lawful basis for us to process personal information will be one of the following:
- Contract: the processing is necessary for a contract we have with you, or because you have asked us to take specific steps before entering into a contract, such as responding to an enquiry. The vast majority of our information processing is necessary for such contracts. Under this basis you have the right of erasure and right of portability of your personal information collected and processed for the purposes of satisfying a contract with you.
- Legitimate Interests: the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party unless there is a good reason to protect your personal data which overrides those legitimate interests. This basis would apply when we engage or share your information with third parties. You have the right to erasure of your information and right to object to the use information that we collect or process for our Legitimate Interests.
- Consent: When you have given clear consent for us to process your personal data for a specific purpose. This is not a basis used frequently. If you have consented to our use of information about you for a specific purpose, you have the right to change your mind at any time, but this will not affect any processing that has already taken place. You have the right of erasure and right of portability of your personal information collected and processed with your prior consent.
To exercise these rights, contact us by using the form on the Contact Us page or by calling us on 07906 652183.
Information We Collect
We collect information so that we can provide the best possible experience when you utilise our Services. Austin Heritage Consultants collect the following personal data in line with the use purposes explained in a subsequent section:
- Name
- Address
- Telephone number
- Email address
- IP address
- Purchasing and payment information
- Any other information that you provide to us
How We Use Your Information
Austin Heritage Consultants uses (and, where specified, shares) your personal information for the following purposes:
- To respond to enquiries. You may choose to submit information regarding an enquiry, request for quotation or to commission us to provide a service. You may be asked to provide any of the following: contact information, a summary of the situation you are experiencing, project information (including information regarding proposed or planned works), applicable documentation or information that would be helpful in responding directly to the enquiry. This information is may be disclosed to third parties with legitimate interest and may be used to assist in responding to your enquiry.
- To carry out services you commission us to provide. If you commission us to carry out a service on your behalf, you will be asked to provide any of the following: contact information, a summary of the services required, project information (including information regarding proposed or planned works), applicable documentation or information that would be helpful in providing the service. This information may be used to assist in providing the commissioned service. Due to the nature of our services, it is may be necessary to disclose a subject property address and/or location to third parties such as archive organisations and council employees (e.g. conservation officers). We will only make disclosures of your information to trusted third parties where they are essential to the provision of the commissioned service.
- Processing transactions. If you commission us to carry out a service on your behalf, you will be asked to provide any of the following: contact information, a summary of the services required, project information (including information regarding proposed or planned works), applicable documentation or information that would be helpful in providing the service. This information may be used to assist in providing the processing transactions relating to the commission, such as creation of invoices. Should you provide financial details these will not be retained by Austin Heritage Consultants once the payment is processed.
- Maintaining communication with you. If you commission us to carry out a service on your behalf, we will use the contact information you provide to us to maintain communication regarding the service we have been commissioned to carry out.
- Enabling our website to function smoothly. Our website collects data such as IP address (the location of the computer on the internet), pages accessed and files downloaded. This helps us to determine how many individuals use our site, how many people visit on a regular basis, which pages are most popular, and how people arrived at our site. This information doesn’t tell us anything about who you are, it simply allows us to monitor and improve our service.
- Other uses. Should we wish to use any information you provide for any purpose other than those stated above, we will outline what information we wish to use and how it would be used and seek your permission prior to doing so, if required.
Sharing and Disclosure of Your Information
Our policy is not to disclose personally identifiable information to unrelated third parties unless required to do so by law or legal process.
Sharing with third parties
We work with third-party service providers to provide services which may require them to access or use information about you:
- Payment Processing. If you provide payment in the form of a cheque, the cheque and any personal information present on the cheque will be provided to our bank for processing. Austin Heritage Consultants will not retain any information provided solely on a cheque.
- Services provided by other parties. We sometimes work with trusted third parties that provide supporting services to work that Austin Heritage Consultants have been commissioned to carry out. If a service provider needs to access information about you to perform services on our behalf, they do so under close instruction from us, including policies and procedures designed to protect your information.
- With your consent. We may share information about you with third parties when you give us consent to do so. For example, we may request to display personal testimonials of satisfied customers on our public website. With your consent, we may post your name alongside the testimonial.
- Responses to Legal Requests. Austin Heritage Consultants reserves the right to share your information to respond to duly authorised information requests of governmental authorities or where required by law. In the event of bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, reorganisation or sale of Austin Heritage Consultants, your information may be sold or transferred as part of that transaction. The promises in this privacy policy will apply to your information as transferred to the new entity.
Data Storage and Security
Information storage and security
We use local storage facilities and a secure email server. Local electronic file storage is firewall protected and access is restricted to approved user accounts. Backups are held securely.
While we implement safeguards designed to protect your information, no security system is impenetrable and due to the inherent nature of the Internet, we cannot guarantee that data, during transmission through the Internet or while stored on our systems or otherwise in our care, is absolutely safe from intrusion by others. In particular, when using email we will minimise the inclusion of personal data as far as possible.
How long we will hold your data
How long we keep information we collect about you depends on the type of information, as described in further detail below. After such time, we will either delete or anonymise your information or, if this is not possible (for example, because the information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your information and isolate it from any further use until deletion is possible.
Information relating to an enquiry
We will retain information provided by you, during the course of an enquiry that does not result a commission to carry out a service, for a reasonable period after the last communication, in case you submit a follow-on enquiry or commission us to carry out a service.
Information relating to an a commission to carry out a service
We will retain information provided by you, during the course of a commission, to carry out a service for a reasonable period after the last communication, in case you submit a follow-on enquiry or commission us to carry out a further service.
Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of data, stored in text files, that are stored on your computer or other devices when websites are loaded in a browser.
Our website uses cookies. For more details see Cookie Information.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
Austin Heritage Consultants may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make any material changes we will notify you by by means of a notice on this website prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.
Austin Heritage Consultants Data Protection Officer and the ICO
The Austin Heritage Consultants Data Protection Officer will ensure proper communication with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The Data Protection Officer will lead investigative action, complaint handling and data breach notification. The Data Protection Officer will also monitor regulatory changes and consult the ICO where implementation of a regulatory or technological change leads to doubt.
Contact Us
If you have any further questions about our privacy policy or the use of your personal data please contact us by using the form on the Contact Us page or by calling us on 07906 652183.